The medicinal leech,Hirudo verbana, is a powerful model organism for investigating fundamental neurobehavioral processes. The well-documented arrangement and properties ofH. verbana’s nervous system allows changes at the level of specific neurons or synapses to be linked to physiological and behavioral phenomena. Juxtaposed to the extensive knowledge ofH. verbana’snervous system is a limited, but recently expanding, portfolio of molecular and multi-omics tools. Together, the advancement of genetic databases forH. verbanawill complement existing pharmacological and electrophysiological data by affording targeted manipulation and analysis of gene expression in neural pathways of interest. Here, we present the first draft genome assembly forH. verbana, which is approximately 250 Mbp in size and consists of 61,282 contigs. Whole genome sequencing was conducted using an Illumina sequencing platform followed by genome assembly with CLC-Bio Genomics Workbench and subsequent functional annotation. Ultimately, the diversity of organisms for which we have genomic information should parallel the availability of next generation sequencing technologies to widen the comparative approach to understand the involvement and discovery of genes in evolutionarily conserved processes. Results of this work hope to facilitate comparative studies withH.verbanaand provide the foundation for future, more complete, genome assemblies of the leech.
